This invention generally relates to tools and methods for loading rivets into a rivet gun, and more specifically relates to an automatic rivet loading device and a method of automatically loading rivets.
A speed rivet is a tubular fastener consisting of a flange and a stem. The fastener is placed on a mandrel, which is a wire with a bulb on the end. The speed rivet is strung on the mandrel with the stem directed towards the bulb of the mandrel. The rivet tool is a device that holds the mandrel and pulls the mandrel through the rivet, causing the rivet to expand in diameter. The expansion process causes the rivet to expand in a hole in a workpiece, causing the components to lock together. The significance of the speed rivet is that it can be used and installed from one side of the assembly. The speed rivet is also special in that it does not incorporate a break stem which leaves part of the broken off mandrel in the rivet. A typical rivet tool holds a string of up to 60 rivets on one 20 inch long mandrel, and as one rivet is “broached” at the nose of the gun, the next rivet is moved up, ready to use. Hence, a typical rivet tool needs to be reloaded by stringing a new load of rivets on the mandrel.
Despite the fact that it is advantageous to be able to load rivets into a rivet gun, especially in the case where the rivet gun is a manual tool, the methods which are typically used to insert rivets into a rivet gun are time consuming for the operator. Typical methods which have been used to load rivets into a rivet gun have been unsuccessful due to one or more of the following, depending on the method: the high cost of replacement parts; the high maintenance time and high custom component costs; the high maintenance down time of the tooling; the long length of time it takes to reload the rivet gun; the weight of the tool is too heavy and is at the top end of ergonomic specifications; and the distance from the reload station to the placing tool is too great.